Black Opera

People of the African diaspora have a long and vibrant entanglement with classical music and are named among the genre’s creators, interpreters, and performers. A number of well-known African American entertainers and entrepreneurs have made their mark in the highbrow world of opera. Invented out of necessity, companies like Opera Ebony, Harlem Opera Theater, and Opera Noire of New York were established to give African American artists performing opportunities and training. Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement by Naomi André, associate professor of African and Afroamerican Studies and Women's Studies and the associate director of the Residential College at the University of Michigan, illuminates the transformative characteristics of the opera canon. André takes on a comparative study of the issues surrounding opera in the U.S. and South Africa, providing a substantial analysis of how blackness is portrayed on the opera stage.